I don't want a "rebate", but I'd prefer a straight return

[brentspeak]

A return to an America that didn't fight stupid, meaningless wars; that had plenty of well-paying, secure jobs for almost every American who wanted one; that wasn't buried under trillions of dollars of debt (Reagan's Curse); and that had a news media which covered the news, not their own behinds and beltway friends.

(Pie-in-the-sky pipe-dream rant, of which I seldom partake in.)

[madeline_con]

1. Maybe the next president won't have ...

a vested interest in continuing perpetual petrowar to help himself (herself) and cronies get rich.

Oh, that's right, John Edwards stepped down. Damn!

[DesertFlower]

2. i agree. nt

[Yael]

3. Debt can be a good thing

if it is invested in the future (like for equipment, software, etc...). Nationally -- that means businesses are investing in something tangible. This must be managed -- and without government oversight can lead to a real mess.

Debt when on the credit card (like for a meal or a haircut) is not an investment, it is credit.

When we left the 80s, we were in future investment debt. On paper, this looked good -- but greed took over. Deregulation and lack of government oversight lead to predatory practices. NAFTA and the like lead to offshoring.

We left the 90s in a surplus -- but it was a house of cards with predators and offshoring just humming the opening bars of the opera that was the neo-con take-over.

Welcome to the year 2008 where our current corrupt administration put everything on the national (Chinese issued) credit card. That is the bad kind of debt.

Now, they are back to saying, "well, lets try demand-side economics since that whole draining the treasury thing didn't work" and that is where the half-baked idea of PREBATES came into play. If you can't make 'trickle down' work, lets try trickling up.

This isn't like the "rebate" (ie, $300 Bush Tax Cuts) from 2001 -- this is a pre-refund of your 2009 taxes. Sucks to be you if you aren't owed a $600 or more refund next year.

People don't need $600 -- they need our jobs to come back and for our government to stop encouraging offshoring.